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Contact us at: [email protected] Friday, January 30, 2015 ONC Proposes EHR Roadmap/Standards; Targets 2017 CMS Requests Info on CAH Eligibility Requirements IHA’s Springfield Legislative Reception is March 18 CDC: Measles Outbreak Hits 84 People, 14 States to Date Briefly Noted ONC Proposes EHR Roadmap/Standards; Targets 2017 The U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services (HHS) Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) today released “Connecting Health and Care for the Nation: A Shared Nationwide Interoperability Roadmap Version 1.0.” The draft interoperability roadmap proposes “critical actions that the public and private sector need to take to advance the country towards an interoperable health IT ecosystem over the next 10 years.” “Specifically, the roadmap focuses on actions that will enable a majority of individuals and providers across the care continuum to send, receive, find, and use a common set of electronic clinical information at the nationwide level by the end of 2017,” according to the report. This requires work in three critical pathways over the next three years: 1) Requiring standards; 2) Motivating the use of those standards through appropriate incentives; and 3) Creating a trusted environment for the collecting, sharing and using of electronic health information. With today’s announcement, ONC released the Draft 2015 Interoperability Advisory. This includes the “Standards Advisory”), which represents ONC’s assessment of the best available standards and implementation specifications for clinical health information interoperability as of December 2014. The public comment period for the draft roadmap closes April 3, and the public comment period for the Standards Advisory closes May 1. CMS Requests Info on CAH Eligibility Requirements The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) is sending letters to critical access hospitals (CAHs) to obtain documentation demonstrating that the hospital is in compliance with current CAH statutory and distance criteria. While IHA has not yet seen the letter, we are advised that it will list the types of data required to determine if CAH location and distance requirements are met. However, if CAHs can prove they are necessary providers under a particular state’s rural health plan, they are exempt from the distance requirement. (Up until Jan. 1, 2006, a hospital’s designation of “necessary provider” in a state was sufficient for classification as a CAH under Medicare.) The purpose of the letters is to obtain preliminary information pending the next recertification or re-accreditation of the CAH. CMS is requesting that the information be supplied within 15 days of the date of notification; however, hospitals can obtain extensions to the 15-day deadline by contacting [email protected] at (404) 562-7405. Staff contact: Tom Jendro IHA’s Springfield Legislative Reception is March 18 IHA will host its spring legislative reception on Wednesday, March 18 from 5-8 pm at the Sangamo Club in Springfield. With the legislature continuing to face extreme budget challenges, this is an excellent opportunity to showcase IHA and the hospital community as a key resource and partner as lawmakers work to craft workable solutions during the spring session. For more details, click here. Please RSVP by March 12. Staff contacts: Nichole Magalis, Jeremy Flynn CDC: Measles Outbreak Hits 84 People, 14 States to Date At a telebriefing yesterday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), officials warned of the potential of measles “getting a foothold” in the U.S. and becoming endemic again. “This is a problem of the measles vaccine not being used,” said Dr. Anne Schuchat, assistant surgeon general, U.S. Public Health Service and director of CDC’s National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases. “Maintaining high vaccination coverage is very important and it's the best protection we have against disease outbreaks. I'm urging all health professionals to think measles.” She mentioned that France went from about 40 cases a year to more than 10,000 in a year. The first case of measles in Illinois this year was confirmed earlier this week. Click here for CDC”s guidelines for health care professionals. Briefly Noted Save the date for the Annual Conference of IHA’s Institute for Innovations in Care and Quality: April 29-30 at Northern Illinois University’s Naperville Campus. Keynote speaker will be best- selling author Michael Roizen, MD, Chief Wellness Officer and Chairman of Cleveland Clinic’s Wellness Institute. In 2007, when he was named Chief Wellness Officer, his was the first such position in a major U.S. health care institution. His first generalaudience book, RealAge: Are You as Young as You Can Be? became a #1 New York Times bestseller. Registration details will be forthcoming. Illinois Hospital Association - 1151 E. 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